The Daily Mail: Man lives with needle in brain for 20 years, it eventually damages cerebral vessel

A man in China went to the doctors because of memory problems. His symptoms, it turns out, were related to a needle in a cerebral artery that had gotten there during acupuncture. The man lived like that for 20 years, The Daily Mail reported.

The 74-year-old patient from Sichuan province had turned to doctors because of memory problems. Doctors discovered that a very small needle remained in the artery of his brain. It had caused bleeding (pseudoaneurysm) which is the cause of the symptoms. The man's relatives recalled that 20 years ago he had undergone acupuncture for migraines. Doctors believe that the needle could have entered the artery behind the eye at that time.

To remove the needle, the doctors opened a part of the patient's skull. A surgical microscope was needed to remove it. The vessel damaged by the needle was closed with the help of a small metal clamp.

Ten days after the operation, the man's ventilator was turned off, and he began to recover.

But due to a complication during general anesthesia, the patient developed a fatal lung infection, and he lived only three weeks after the operation.

According to doctors, this is the first case described in the medical literature of a pseudoaneurysm caused by an acupuncture needle.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter